{"id":75001,"date":"2025-10-12T02:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T02:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/75001\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T02:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T02:47:10","slug":"five-takeaways-as-ireland-quartet-catch-the-eye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/75001\/","title":{"rendered":"Five takeaways as Ireland quartet ‘catch the eye’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following a 28-7 victory for Ulster over the Bulls in the United Rugby Championship (URC), here\u2019s our five takeaways from the clash at Affidea Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The top line<\/p>\n

Ulster<\/a> produced a hugely impressive performance to secure their second win out of two games and thus end the unbeaten streak of the Bulls<\/a> in emphatic fashion in Belfast.<\/p>\n

Tries from Stuart McCloskey, Juarno Augustus, Rob Herring and Cormac Izuchukwu saw them to a maximum while Nathan Doak sent over four conversions on the night.<\/p>\n

Wilco Louw was the Bulls\u2019 only try scorer on a forgetful outing for Johan Ackermann\u2019s men, who had beaten the Ospreys and Leinster in the opening rounds in Pretoria.<\/p>\n

Second half swing<\/p>\n

A 7-7 scoreline at the break after a disappointing half had this game in the balance, but what transpired after the break was chalk and cheese for the respective URC<\/a> sides.<\/p>\n

Ulster moved through the gears in terms of their execution, desire and physicality while in contrast the Bulls went into their shell and were a shadow of their early selves.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the South Africans were unrecognisable as their set-piece went to pieces and game management was dire, which was surprising with Handre Pollard at the wheel.<\/p>\n

Springboks struggle<\/p>\n

Leading on from that Bulls fans will be disappointed with their Springboks returning from Rugby Championship duty as only one stood up tall in disappointing showings.<\/p>\n

Leinster v Sharks: Five takeaways as Harry Byrne inspires \u2018ominous\u2019 win with just \u2018one positive\u2019 for South African visitors<\/a><\/p>\n

Benetton v Lions: Five takeaways as Louis Lynagh\u2019s \u2018attacking artistry\u2019 catches the eye while visitors are their \u2018own worst enemy\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

That man was prop Louw, who was his usual destructive self early on as he flexed at scrum time, crashed over the whitewash for a score and later made a steal in contact.<\/p>\n

However, that was the only bright spark in their Springbok contingent as the likes of Canan Moodie, Pollard, Willie le Roux and Marco van Staden were very out of sorts.<\/p>\n

Ireland quartet press their case<\/p>\n

From an Ireland perspective it was a wonderful night for McCloskey, Doak, Izuchukwu and Jacob Stockdale, who all threw down statement showings ahead of the autumn.<\/p>\n

The uncapped Doak managed this fixture expertly while McCloskey was a handful throughout and Izuchukwu was everywhere before injury struck in the aftermath of his well-taken try. But it was Stockdale who really caught the eye as he posed a threat from full-back, was solid in the air and caused the Bulls ample problems in an impressive showing.<\/p>\n

Augustus a hit<\/p>\n

It was also a standout performance from Ulster\u2019s new signing, who is guaranteed to become a fan favourite at Affidea Stadium thanks to his destructive game and work-rate.<\/p>\n

Augustus was everywhere in his second game for the province and alongside David McCann and Nick Timoney, Ulster have a well-balanced back-row unit this campaign.<\/p>\n

What a signing this South African eight is and if he continues on this trajectory there is little doubt he will be pressing hard for Springboks caps in November and beyond.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and snubbed Springbok star as rampant Stormers nil Scarlets<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a 28-7 victory for Ulster over the Bulls in the United Rugby Championship (URC), here\u2019s our five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[37773,778,1100,61,60,43,13311,14881],"class_list":["post-75001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-bulls","tag-features","tag-home-page","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-ulster","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}